Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a method for sorting mailpieces in which data objects that are relevant for the sorting of the mailpieces are generated and/or processed, whereby a result of the processing of a data object in a first data processing system is transmitted to a second data processing system for further processing.
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention also relate to a device that is suitable for carrying out the method.
Mailpieces mailed in a certain region are normally collected in a distribution center of a postal service provider and distributed among the destination regions within the scope of the so-called outgoing sorting. In the distribution centers of the destination region, a fine sorting is then normally carried out in which the mailpieces are distributed among the delivery depots. Moreover, as a rule, sorting according to the sequence of the delivery route is also carried out. Here, the sorting of the mailpieces is done on the basis of sorting data that contains the association of mailpieces with the sorting compartments of a sorting machine. In order to generate the sorting data, with an eye towards the capacity of the available sorting machines, it is necessary to know the expected mail volume, which is usually ascertained on the basis of the mail volume accumulated during preceding sorting procedures.
The generation of the sorting data and the evaluation of the mail volumes accumulated during the sorting are very complex processes in which, as a rule, several different data processing systems are used.
Normally, several systems are provided in which sorting destinations are set up and maintained. Typically, the term sorting destinations, in addition to referring to delivery addresses, also refers to delivery districts in which the delivery points serviced by a single mail carrier are combined, as well as to additional sorting-relevant groupings of delivery addresses and delivery districts.
The information about the existing sorting destinations is transmitted to systems that generate the sorting data for the outgoing sorting and for the incoming sorting, taking the expected mail volume into account. The sorting plans are then transmitted to the appertaining distribution centers, where they are loaded into the sorting machines in the form of sorting programs.
Moreover, sorting data is transmitted to data processing systems that detect and evaluate mail volumes accumulated during the sorting so that production planning can be carried out as a function of the accumulated mail volumes. As a rule, in addition to the sorting data, these systems require not only the sorting data but also information about the existing sorting destinations on the basis of which the sorting plans are generated.
In the state of the art, this information is transmitted from the systems that are provided for generating and maintaining this information, via the data processing systems that are provided for generating the sorting plans, to the systems that perform the evaluation of the mail volumes accumulated during the sorting.
This entails the disadvantage that, in addition the sorting data, the information about the sorting destinations also has to be compiled by the in-between system for generating the sorting plans so that it can be made available for transmission to the evaluation system, and for this purpose, special functionalities and interfaces have to be made available. Moreover, the problem exists that the information about the sorting destinations has to be linked in a suitable manner to the sorting data in order to ensure a smooth automatic further processing of the sorting data in the systems for evaluating the accumulated mail volumes.
Another drawback of the approach according to the state of the art is especially the fact that, due to the consecutive transmission of the information via various data processing systems, data inconsistencies or data distortions and data losses can occur that especially impair the evaluation of the mail volume on the basis of the sorting data and on the basis of the transmitted information about the sorting destinations.
Moreover, it is disadvantageous that the information about the sorting destinations taken into account in the sorting data only becomes available in the systems that further process the sorting data once the processing has been completed in the upstream system for generating the sorting data and once the information has been transmitted.